Remember the movie “Dude, Where’s My Car?”, with Ashton Kutcher? I didn’t think so, it was not very memorable. These days Ashton Kutcher has more things to worry about than bad movies from his past, but the movie did come to mind when I saw this house.
As you can see, it is missing a porch. It is items like this that fall under the “safety” category when doing an FHA appraisal inspection. A property must meet certain guidelines to qualify for FHA financing. I covered these “MPR” items in a previous post. While there is a board nailed to the door opening to prevent potential accidents this would still not pass HUD guidelines. It would need to be corrected before a loan could be made on the property. This would include a refinance or a purchase loan.
There are two things that could be done. The door could be removed and the hole bricked up, or an adequate deck and stairs could be added so that access to the ground would be safe. It just so happens that the owners had added on a larger deck just to the right of the door and they had not yet addressed this issue. Also, the loan was conventional so the appraisal was not “subject to” the repair, however it will most likely be required by the lender to close the loan, depending on their underwriting guidelines. Have you ever seen similar items that would be FHA required repairs? Do you have one that your not sure of and need advice? I am always available to discuss these types of things, just call or email me.
If you have any real estate appraisal related questions you can call me at 205.243.9304, email me, or connect with me on facebook.
What about option #3? Attach a slide to the base of the door for quick egress? Kids would love it too. Selling point maybe? 🙂
Great idea Ryan, I did not think of that. This would work great on this house because they had a pool in the back yard and you could slide right into it.
There you go. Great thinking, Tom. 🙂